


Written in Blood

by ashtraythief



Series: masquerade fills [13]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Tragedy, Blow Jobs, Emotional Conflict, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Military Conquest, Seduction, Self-Sacrifice, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-30 01:16:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16276184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtraythief/pseuds/ashtraythief
Summary: “Kyrelion.” Jared traced the letters with his fingers while he sounded out the word. “Who is that? A lover? A place?”“A promise,” Jensen said and looked out the window.Jared ruthlessly conquers the world for his Emperor. Jensen is warming his bed.





	Written in Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 5th round of the spn masquerade on livejournal. I filled this prompt twice, and this was actually the first version I wrote but after I incuded the major character death, I decided to write a happier iteration where no one dies: [Conquered](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16206797).
> 
> I have no excuse for this, except that sometimes, there’s no happy ending (though I don’t think this is a bad ending per se, for these two characters in this situation). I hope you’ll still like it.  
> If you have questions about the major character death before reading, see the end of the works for notes because it is a major spoiler that I don’t want to give away here.

 

“Kyrelion.” Jared traced the letters with his fingers while he sounded out the word. He was wrong of course. He pronounced it Kai-re-lion.

“Who is that? A lover? A place?” Jared asked.

Jensen startled. In all the months he’d been here, Jared had never asked about the tattoo on Jensen’s chest. “It’s Ky-re-lee-on,” Jensen said.

Jared huffed. “Okay then, Kyrelion. Who was that?”

“It’s not a name.”

“A place?”

Jensen shook his head.

“What then?”

“A promise,” Jensen said and looked out the window.

Jared’s winter palace was built high up on a mountain, overlooking the surrounding lands for miles. It was easily defensible and impossible to attack, the perfect place to overwinter the cold and stormy months.

“What kind of promise?” Jared asked, his fingers still tracing the tattoo on Jensen’s chest.

“One that I intend to keep,” Jensen said and this time he was unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. He couldn’t talk about this. Talking would make it real and then everything would fall apart before he’d even started.

Jared threw him a sharp look, unused to anything but pleasantry, seduction, or humor out of Jensen’s mouth. Jensen thought about covering it up, instead he freed himself from Jared’s hold and stood up from nest of blankets they’d made in front of the fireplace. Naked, he walked across the polished wooden floor to the little wash basin.

“You’re in a mood today,” Jared remarked lazily, a hard edge in his voice.

Jensen started washing himself, slow sensual movements to placate Jared’s anger. “I don’t like being cooped up here.”

Behind him, there were soft footsteps and then Jared stepped behind him, letting his hands fall on his shoulders heavily. Possessively.

“I might have to travel next week, if the weather allows. I might be persuaded to take you with me.”

Jensen smiled. Just what he needed.

He turned around, still kneeling on the floor and leaned against Jared’s thigh, nuzzling his cock.

“I’d love to accompany you,” he said, letting his breath out softly against Jared’s skin. He’d been sharing Jared’s bed since the spring blossom, he knew what got the commander hot.

Jared stroked Jensen’s hair, drawing him closer until Jensen’s lips were resting against Jared’s hardening dick.

“Then don’t tease.”

Jensen obeyed and opened his mouth, taking Jared in deep. The commander didn’t hold back, he never did. He fucked Jensen’s mouth with quick and hard thrusts. Jensen relaxed his throat and reached up to massage Jared’s balls. He focused on looking up through half lidded eyes and Jared stared at him hungrily.

It didn’t take long, like this, it never did. After Jared came down Jensen’s throat and ordered Jensen to lick him clean, Jared got dressed.

“I have dinner with my captains. I expect you naked in my bed when I get back.”

Jensen smiled. “Of course. I’ll be ready for you.”

Jared looked down to Jensen’s soft dick and scowled. “Hard and ready. Play with yourself while I’m gone, imagine how it will be when I fuck you. I want you desperate for my cock.”

“I always am,” Jensen said, and Jared looked like he wanted to believe him.

When Jared had left, Jensen let out a sigh. It wasn’t hard to enjoy sex with Jared, it was good sex. And if Jensen hadn’t angered him, Jared always made a point to reciprocate. Jensen couldn’t count the times Jared had taken him apart with his hands and mouth and cock until Jensen had come screaming Jared’s name. In the beginning, Jensen had been ashamed. He wasn’t supposed to enjoy this. But there was no one left to judge and in this unreal place between living and dying, Jensen decided to take the little pleasures he could, even if that meant curling up in the arms of the man who’d eradicated his people.

But Jared wanted more. He always wanted more. He wanted Jensen’s heart and soul, wanted his essence, until all of Jensen belonged to him.

Jared’s greed was legendary, known across their world, the emperor’s commander, whose avarice surpassed even that of his ruler, who conquered land after land, took all the riches and the beauties and left only bleak emptiness behind.

It was why Jensen was still in Jared’s bed. Sure, Jensen was skilled. He knew all the tricks to satisfy a man, knew how to draw it out and tease until the pleasure was ratcheted up so high, knew how to make them come fast and hard, and knew how to cosset them after. He knew how to smile and how to beckon, knew how to move his body, knew how to make his voice soft and alluring. It had drawn Jared in, but what made him stay, what made him drag Jensen into his camp, night after night and forbid him to leave, that was Jared’s endless greed to possess all of him.

Jensen would give it to him, but the time had not yet come.

 

They rode across the snow covered steppe. Jared’s guard was small but deadly. At night, they stopped in a rundown roadhouse. The people watched them with big hungry eyes, watched Jared’s fur coat, the silver tassels of his horse’s girdle. But they saw the large sword carried across his back, saw his men armed to the teeth and they stepped back. Only a young woman stood her ground. But she wasn’t watching Jared.

She watched Jensen.

Her eyes were green, her hair was copper. She was dressed in a long dress with red and blue geometric patterns. She was a long way from home. Just like Jensen.

The hatred in her eyes said that she recognized him. Jensen held her gaze.

When he walked past her, she spit on the ground.

He didn’t hold it against her. She didn’t know about the words etched into his skin, resting over his heart and waiting for the right moment to be fulfilled.

 

They ate at the best table. It didn't mean much in this establishment except that it was the closest to the fireplace. The redhead brought bread and butter and her eyes shot daggers at Jensen.

Jared noticed. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don't play dumb.” He jerked his head in the direction of the serving girl.

“Later.

“How about now?”

Jensen pointedly looked at Jared's guard sharing their table, then shot Jared a pleading look. Jensen never begged outside of their bed and he rarely asked for anything so when he did, Jared took note.

“Later.”

When Jared looked away Jensen snuck the large steak knife into his sleeve.

 

The bed was surprisingly comfortable. The sheets were clean too and Jensen absently wondered if the innkeeper had given up his own linens. Not that it mattered much.

“So,” Jared prompted, while he was taking off his boots. “The girl.”

Jensen had considered what to say but he hadn't come up with anything believable. And he wanted Jared to know the truth. He'd slid the knife under the pillow the moment he'd come into the room so now Jensen took off his vest, keeping only the thin white shirt on.

“She must not like me in your bed.” Jensen shrugged at Jared's raised eyebrows. “We belong to the same tribe. The eyes are kinda a dead give away.”

“I’ve met many green-eyed people, Jensen. It’s a rare treat but I found it in many different people.” Jared stood and slowly walked towards the bed. “Why are you lying to me?”

Jensen inched closer to the pillow. “She must have recognized me then.”

“Recognized you?” Jared’s voice was soft and he stopped a few feet from the bed. “Are you someone to recognize?”

Jensen shrugged again.

“Because I remember, when I found you in that seedy tavern waiting tables, you told me you were no one. Just a guy who’d left his home a long time ago and ended up on the wrong side of Lady Luck. But that’s not the whole story, is it, _Jensen_? They might have cast you out but your name is still etched in your family’s ancestral tree in your sacred stone ring.”

Jensen’s blood ran cold. Had Jared known, all this time? “But… Then why didn’t you kill me?”

“Why should I? Your people were already defeated. There was no one left to punish by executing the king’s youngest son.” Jared’s lips pulled into a cruel smile. “And, to be honest, the idea of having the king’s son in my bed, a prize just for myself, that the Emperor had never seen, never touched, well I liked that.”

All this time, Jared had known. Jensen stared ahead. Jared had known and hadn’t even considered him a threat.

Slowly, Jared reached past him and pulled the knife out from under the pillow. “And what were you going to do with this?”

“I thought you were going to kill me, if you found out.”

“I admit I was wary at first. But I wanted to see who you hated more—the family who’d cast you out or the man who’d killed them. And then…”

“Then what?” Jensen’s voice was whisper thin.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. The last descendant of the oldest royal family in these lands. Your family can trace their line back to the first man to tame a horse.”

It was no secret that Jared detested nobility. He’d risen from nothing, an orphan that had fought for survival in the dirt and poverty of the capital, a street rat that had joined the army and climbed his way to the very top until the only other person he bowed to was the Emperor. And if rumors were true, it wasn’t a very deep bow these days.

“But the longer I had you in my bed…” Jared angrily dragged a hand through his hair. “You’re the strongest and most stubborn man I ever met. I knew who you were, what you were hiding from me. What it must cost you. I needed to have you, all of you. All the riches in these lands and you’d be my greatest conquest.” Jared’s mouth twisted in a self-deprecating smile. “It never occured to me what it would cost to win you.”

Jensen swallowed. “What it would cost you?”

“I love you, Jensen.”

Jensen’s world came to a grinding halt. “But you don’t. You love _having_ me. You don’t love _me._ ”

Jared’s smile was hard. “Oh, but I do Jensen. And it’s eating me up. I never know if you’re just biding your time, if you still resent me. You say all these things, do all these things but I can never be sure. So I take and take because I know you won’t ever say no but I never know your heart.”

Something in Jensen splintered and broke and the world started spinning again. It was going too fast, blurring the edges but he stood, his legs carrying him to Jared of their own volition. “For a long time,” he said hoarsely, “I hated you. But there was always this tiny part that was grateful too. Because they deserved it. And I didn’t want to acknowledge it, didn't want to admit that I was happy my family was dead. That’s why I fought you for so long. I couldn’t—not the man who’d killed them. But you...I fell in love with you and there was nothing I could do about it.”

Jared’s mouth was on his, hard and bruising, his hands digging deep into Jensen’s side, sliding around his back and pulling him in impossibly tight. Jensen held on for dear life because he’d spin out of control if he didn’t. The world was still turning too fast and Jared’s hands were the only thing grounding him.

They fell on the bed together and Jared took no care when he ripped their clothes off. Jensen didn’t care, helped him along because he needed to keep moving, couldn't stop now, couldn't stop to think, what this meant, couldn’t think about the words on his chest.

He spread his legs and pulled Jared in, embraced the burn and the stretch and focused on nothing but Jared’s panting breath against his neck, Jared’s cock so deep inside of him, Jared’s teeth closing around his shoulder, biting that painful truth in his skin.

“Mine. Be mine.”

“Yes. Yours.”

They came together, hot and messy and violent and afterwards, Jared didn’t let him go. He rolled them around and pulled Jensen against his chest. Neither was looking at the other but Jared’s hands were possessive brands on Jensen’s back and Jensen reached up to bury a hand in Jared’s hair.

Softly, Jared’s lips brushed against the thin skin of the inside of Jensen’s wrist. “You were born for a throne, and even in that dingy little tavern, I could see the crown on your head. I’ll make you a king again.”

“I will go anywhere with you,” Jensen said and he knew it wasn’t a lie. There was only one place for him to go.

They returned to Jared’s winter palace two days before the solstice. At the mountain’s base, a giant camp was forming. Rows and rows of tents, soldiers from all corners of the Empire. And they had come because Jared had called.

He rode among their ranks, and they cheered for their hero with fanatic adoration in their eyes. They were simple men, sons of farmers and artisans, sheep herders and innkeepers. They were like Jared, no rank, no family, and he’d lead them to greatness. They would go through the flames of the underworld for him.

“What do you think?” Jared asked him.

“With this army, you could conquer the world.”

Jared smiled and took his hand.

The Empire didn’t celebrate the solstice. But when Jensen told Jared he needed to bathe, needed to light a candle under the open sky, Jared let him.

Jensen went down to the river. The current was too quick for it to freeze and Jensen waded into the cold water without a regard for his body. He needed to cleanse himself.

After, he walked back up to the top of the castle. Jared’s bedroom had a balcony, overlooking the entire valley, now filled with his new army ready to conquer the rest of the world. The Emperor wouldn’t stand a chance. And with Jared on the throne, the expansion would never stop.

Jensen lit a candle and thought of the lands he’d grown up in. Sloping green hills and sprawling woods, gurgling rivers and wheat fields as far as the eye could see. They had all burned.

He thought of the people he’d known; the family who had cast him out, the friends who’d turned away from him and the kind farmers who’d given him food when he’d stumbled alone out into the world. The people in the cities, loud and crass but with generous hearts and always a coin to spare. The whores who’d taken him in and taught him everything he knew. They had all died.

The land he’d grown up in was no more, the people he’d known were no more.

Kyrelion.

He blew out the candle.

 

He stepped inside and didn’t stop. He needed to keep moving. The steak knife was in his coat, taken from the road house because Jared still didn’t leave weapons lying around.

He thought about just kneeling behind Jared and plunging the knife in his back but he couldn’t do that.

Jared stood by his desk, studying a large map. The world at his feet.

When he heard Jensen come, he turned. Jensen blinked furiously and drove the knife into Jared’s chest. It caught on bone, glided to the side and Jared gripped his arms, spun them around and on the floor. They landed on their knees, leaning into each other.

Jensen managed to hold onto the knife, half-buried in Jared’s side when he became aware of something cold and sharp pressing into his belly.

He looked up into Jared’s face, hard lines and a thin mouth, his eyes filled with a dark storm. But no surprise. A street rat always expected betrayal.

“Why?”

“I’m sorry,” Jensen said helplessly.

Jared’s dagger pressed in deeper, broke skin, and a hot rivulet of blood trailed down Jensen’s stomach.

Jared grit his teeth. “I want to know why.”

With his free hand, Jensen tugged at the collar of his shirt, revealing the tattoo.

“You wanted to know what it means,” Jensen said and licked his dry lips. “Kyrelion.”

Jared blinked in surprise. “What? The tattoo?”

“It’s my people’s sacred blood oath for revenge.”

“Your people,” Jared said and narrowed his eyes. “They cast you out. They couldn’t stand having a son who lay with other men.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Jensen drew in a deep breath, tried to ignore the pain. It was spreading through his chest and he didn’t know whether it was coming from the wound or his heart. “You killed my entire family. And when you killed them you made me the heir. You made me responsible for every life destroyed, sold into slavery, fleeing with the wind from poverty and destruction. You made me the king of a dying people.”

“And they’ve been dead for months, Jensen. Your people don’t exist anymore.”

Jensen nodded. “They don’t. But the Kyrelion has to be honored.”

Jared raised a sardonic eyerow. “So you’ll kill me? Despite your love for me?”

Jensen gave him a weak smile. “You think I lied, but I didn’t. But Jared, you and your men, you ride across the land like locusts. The people out there are starving. They’re poor and they’re scared, they freeze in the winter and thirst during the summer. It needs to stop.”

“I only obeyed my emperor’s will,” Jared said. “Yes, I’ve outgrown him and his petty ambition, but even if you kill me, others will still come.”

“No one ever accomplished what you did. No one conquered so much land, killed so many people. No one was as rapacious as you. It doesn’t matter if they send more. You need to be stopped.”

Jared twisted his hand and the sharp blade dug a little deeper. “If you kill me, I’ll take you with me. Back away now and I will let you live.”

“I’ve been dead since I took the oath,” Jensen said. “If our people take a life, they forfeit their own. That’s why the Kyrelion is so terrible.”

“So stop.”

Jensen took a deep breath, smiled. “No.”

Jared’s mouth twisted into a bitter grin. “We could have been great together.”

For a moment, Jensen let himself think about it. Think about the pleasure in Jared’s arms, the comfort and the riches he’d live in, the power Jared would eventually share. Jensen would ascend to the place of power that was promised to him through birth and taken away by his own family. He could get it back through Jared’s sword and his bed. There’d be no one around to judge and to reprimand, because all his people were gone.

They were all gone and when he’d watched the flames in the last village die down to glimmering ambers, Jensen had cut his hand and taken an oath. He’d left, never looking back, stopping in the next seedy tavern to pay a man to etch the words into his skin.

Jensen looked up at Jared. “I know we would have,” he said. “But I took an oath.”

Jared nodded, something in his eyes Jensen had never seen before. He thought it might be respect.

“So be it,” Jared said.

Jensen shoved the knife in deep just as searing pain tore through his stomach. He looked into Jared’s eyes, ignored the pain. Jared’s nostrils flared, the only sign of the pain he must be feeling.

Jensen’s heart was pounding loudly in his chest and his vision narrowed. He only saw Jared’s face. Slowly, he leaned forward for one last kiss, the dagger biting deeper into his flesh, tearing open the wound. When their mouths met, Jensen twisted his knife. Jared breathed his last copper-tainted breath against Jensen’s lips. Jensen smiled as his body slumped forward, his head resting against Jared’s broad chest. He’d always liked this position, when he didn’t have to see, could just feel and pretend. He closed his eyes and welcomed the darkness.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> After Jared and his army wipe out Jensen's people, Jensen vows revenge to kill Jared. Jensen realizes this means certain death and is okay with that. When he kills Jared, Jared pulls a knife on him, and they kill each other.


End file.
